Warning

Warning: This site contains images and graphic descriptions of extreme violence and/or its effects. It's not as bad as it could be, but is meant to be shocking. Readers should be 18+ or a mature 17 or so. There is also some foul language occasionally, and potential for general upsetting of comforting conventional wisdom. Please view with discretion.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

ASHM Research: Timeline Clues, and Hospital Delineation

June 30, 2012 
(incomplete - updates July2)


<< Abu Salim Hospital Massacre {Masterlist}
    << ASHM Research {Masterlist}

We know Abu Salim trauma hospital was opened for media scrutiny mid-day on August 26. At that time, it was painted with blood that sprayed and poured from executions by bullets and blades, and scatted with rotting corpses. These had been Black men and apparent loyalist fighters, so clearly Rebel fighters are the natural culprits. We turn now to what was reported or can be ascertained about what happened there in the days before that.

The Last Working Hospital?
One possible lead, with questions was published August 23. Hurriya alerts me of this Sky News broadcast by Alex Crawford, "apparently the abu saleem hospital."
http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16054621 (original link-now directs to:) http://news.sky.com/story/875946/children-shot-amid-sniper-attack-in-libya

The hospital isn't named, but is said to be "in a particularly bad geographical position because it is very close to the Rixos hotel (where western journalists stay), and very close to the Gaddafi compound and Green Square." This fits quite well with Abu Salim trauma hospital, which we suspect was taken out of commission at about this time; it's near the Rixos and Bab Al-Aziziyah. Green Square is quite a ways from both of those, really.

The interior shots are not conclusive, but it seems much livelier - and lighter-skinned - than Abu Salim sounded at the same time. No outside shots are shared. I decided to make this graphic after Googling a few places. I think Tripoli Central Hospital is not the same as Tripoli Medical Center, for one thing. For another, there's another hospital (anyone get that name?) in a spot even more like what Crawford describes.

That would seem to be a place called "Green public hospital," reportedly used a lot for treating wounded Gaddafi soldiers. We've heard very little of the situation in this facility right next to the Rixos, but it was apparently the center of fighting, with reports that loyalist snipers were stationed there and that someone or other verifiably knocked at least one corner out of it with some powerful rocket. Clearly worthy of more study...(details forthcoming, or see comments)

It could also be the northernmost central hospital, only one kilometer south of Green Square, that Crawford visited. Whichever one, she called it "the capitol's only working hospital," which isn't likely true, but the pool was clearly diminished just then. If this is Abu Salim, and it was the last, that would leave zero hospitals running for a spell, and that's not the case.

Inside this hospital: mostly wounded rebel fighters being treated, rebel fighters running around inside, a three-year old dying of a stomach shot (by snipers) and we hear an 11-year-old dead, shot in the head by same snipers. A mortar round fired by someone hit a perimeter wall, while Crawford was there, to illustrate the plight. It was grim, but she was not taken to the hospital in Abu Salim.

The Red Cross Help Before the Storm
The last we heard verifiably from there was the day before that. On the 22nd, the Red Cross/Red Crescent delivered medical supplies to several hospitals, including our subject.

22-08-2011 News Release
http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/news-release/2011/libya-news-2011-08-22.htm

“Today, our team started providing medical facilities, including the Abu Slim Trauma Centre, with some of the supplies they need in order to treat casualties. We are delivering enough medical supplies to treat at least 300 casualties. The consignments include surgical kits, dressing materials and intravenous fluids,” announced George Comninos, the ICRC's head of delegation in Tripoli. 
 “In one of the hospitals we visited today, only one doctor was left to look after 25 patients, including 15 seriously wounded,” added Comninos. “We are mobilizing a complete surgical team to support the medical staff and help hospitals cope with the situation.” 
 The ICRC is maintaining regular contact with the main hospitals, so that the organization can evaluate their needs and respond accordingly. "So far, we only have limited access because of the fighting. However, we have managed to maintain dialogue with all parties ever since the beginning of the conflict, so we are able to operate despite the highly fluid front lines,” explains Comninos. “It is still difficult to get a clear picture of the overall humanitarian situation. We continue to urge both sides to respect civilians and to let medical workers treat the wounded.”
The lines would soon get too "fluid" to maintain contact with that hospital. Another source confirms the situation described above was at the one hospital named. The Telegraph reported on Aug. 23 from Tripoli Central Hospital.
There are two other major hospitals in Tripoli – they were overflowing with casualties as well, and so were all the private hospitals." Yesterday the Red Cross said its teams had made contact with about six medical facilities in Tripoli. They have confirmed the main problem they is an acute manpower shortage. At the Abu Slim Trauma Centre a team found just [one] doctor looking after 25 patients including 15 very seriously injured.
What a strange staff, about the same as the one we'd see doing the same thing on the 26th. No nurses at all, one presumes. Is this visit of the 22nd before or after the rebel takeover of management? That would have accompanied the massacre, presumably. Is it possible the foreigners were brought in but didn't see the dead people? Yes, with a tight-enough guided tour. They wouldn't really start smelling right away.

It's also possible the massacre happened after this, as the rebel occupiers wondered what to do with their "mercenary" captives. Or after they took over and killed the one remaining doctor after the restfled for whatever reason. (??) Maybe seeing outsiders trying to help the "criminals" inside infuriated them enough to go on safari that night.

There would be no further news for three days  (or was there? - I'm not sure). It was pretty quiet if so.

Other Clues
Rebels speaking to the media on the 26th and 27th cite time spans of varying number of days (two to five?) since the victims passed away. I'll later cite examples.

 The bodies and the maggots can tell the time, but not precisely as read by us, but ... bloating and discoloration suggests days have passed- maggots can hatch whithin 24 hours, but to be visibble size and of any grat number, at least two. Images start only on August 26. One photo ([AM1] as listed here) shows numrous but small maggots on this dead Black man's face as he's wheeled out. Other photos show maggots on the floor, crawling through the blood soup. Thus we're looking at an event most likely at least 2 days prior to this, as many as four days. Massacre date suggested: Aug. 22/23 most likely, 24 possible. Even the 21st is possible, but least likely for being so early in the invasion.

Last Silence before the News Storm
At the end of that three-day's silence after the ICRC visit, the New York Times' Kirkpatrick and Fahim filed a report on August 25 on the hospital situation. Reporting from Tripoli Central Hospital, they found "two doctors said the hospital had treated as many as 500 patients a day this week for gunshot wounds as the rebels..." had nothing to do with it, of course. "Snipers" they usually said. The fighting was described so:
"In their drive to take command of Tripoli, the rebels concentrated their forces on a block-by-block battle for the streets of the Abu Salim neighborhood, a center of Colonel Qaddafi’s support. By late afternoon, the fighting had once again swamped Tripoli Central Hospital with wounded civilians and combatants.” 
 This piece makes no mention of the hospital(s) in Abu Salim knocked so brutally out of commission. It's as if it never existed - until the news the next day, when bodies mostly dead about 3 days were revealed. The loss of this hospital, plus the loss of any others that were "closed" by the fighting, surely increased the load and decreased survival rates at the overworked remaining major hospital(s). And that's just among those - mostly rebel fighters - the rebels would let be sent to any hospital. They kept their own captives, bandaged a bit or not, or killed them on the spot, usually.

As the rebel militias squeezed Abu Salim, it seems they meant to make it quite clear, as they later would with the city of Sirte, that there would be no medical escape possible from their wrath.

First Views Before that Silence:
On August 25, an MSF medical team rescued two patients in very critical condition from Abu Salim hospital, which was surrounded by intense fighting at the time, and transferred them to Tripoli Medical Center. 
Libya: MSF Scales Up Response in Tripoli Amid Shocking Scenes in Hospitals (Aug. 27)

There should have been a shocking scene there by that date, but no news cameras 'til the following day, late afternoon (I think - Al Jazeera English footage, from the 26th, first video? photos not analyzed to get chronology yet...). What did they see there?
“When we arrived at Abu Salim, we faced quite a shocking scene: dozens of dead bodies were lying in the hospital’s compound,” reports Jonathan Whittall, MSF emergency coordinator. “Abu Salim hospital had been completely cut off by the nearby fighting and 22 patients were stuck inside, together with five medical staff. We managed to evacuate the two most critical patients—who would have probably died otherwise. Later on, the remaining patients were transferred to safer facilities.”
Two early removals well before the news cameras - the rest were only taken out the next day.
MSF sent three tons of dressing materials and much needed surgical material, including external fixators, from Tunisia into Libya.
What they really needed there was lots of lime powder and garbage bags. It seems they were supplied with enough.

It's interesting to note this visit was not reported on the same day, in a MSF dispatch from Aug. 25, but only after everyone else mentioned it first. Perhaps the visit was late in the day of the 25th and missed this deadline, but neither did they pipe up on the 26th,

Monday, June 25, 2012

On Medical Neutrality and Violations of it in Libya

June 25, 2012 


Note: I've been busy with other things and neglecting this site and related research. First I was focused on the big report, the CIWCL site, and a press release. Now I'm doing some work on Syria, which is starting to take shape here (news coming). But I want to keep this at least moving towards a full report on the hospital massacre(s). Another step is to explore a central concept and related side-issues that will help set the context of the report.

Neutrality in Context and its Guardians, PHR
Medical Neutrality, as a concept, seems to have independent roots in numerous cultures stretching back in some cases to ancient times, but taking a more codified and formal aspect in recent decades. The basic idea is that there's no need to brutalize people who are captured or injured and thus no threat to you, nor to interfere with medical professionals doing that treating, even if the patients are your enemies. Most people would instinctively respect this basic level of decency, but we know there are wicked people in the world who'd use such vulnerability to their advantage in destroying an enemy totally. So that's why new rules to protect the medical process were built into the Geneva conventions and the foundation of the Red Cross/Red Crescent, and guarded by human rights people.

The field of vigilance in this particular area seems to be dominated by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), based in Cambridge, Massachusetts,  USA. Their page on medical neutrality and persecution of health workers is the top page in a Google search for "medical neutrality," with the Wikipedia article close behind. PHR lobbies for punishment of those who interfere with medical work, and also lobbying for release of jailed doctors accused of non-medical acts like "working with an enemy government" or fomenting insurrection (see here).

PHR on Violation in Libya
PHR addressed the issue in Libya during the uprising/war thing we helped with last year.
“Witness to War Crimes: Evidence from Misrata, Libya," released only on August 30, 2011.
(Forthcoming: brief review of the alleged violations reported here of medical neutrality.)

Once the Misratans broke out of their siege with outside help, they were able to descend on the capitol and exact revenge, in the days just before that report was published. PHR didn’t stop at Misrata, or at hospitals, covering one serious non-medical war crime in Tripoli, at the time of rebel conquest in late August, with a later PDF report. They were able to medically name the pre-massacre injuries of the unharmed escapees from the alleged Khamis Brigade Shed Massacre. Otherwise, PHR's deficient expertise in bullshit detection is the main feature, taking down witness accounts as truth, and then demanding “accountability’ based on it. We have our own PDF report on that massacre and those witnesses, available at the site of the Citizen's Investigation into War Cimes in Libya.

Later, they did catch and protest the NTC regime's abuse of Dr. Salem Al-Farjani, their advisor on that slanted report, in May 2012. But the Cambridge crowd seem to have missed another massacre, first reported the same time as the shed massacre, just a few miles north, and with a comparable or higher death toll. And it's one right up their alley, one of the most extreme violations of medical neutrality imaginable, occurring inside and on the grounds of a hospital. Dozens of patients and apparently staff were executed, women and children were killed, bodies  were dumped, and one patient at least had his head sliced off. As many as 200 or more victims, 80 at the very least, were slain there, leaving the protected medical space blood-spattered and devoid of human life. It stayed that way for days as the bodies - most them looking like suspected African mercenary types - started rotting.

PHR still have not finished their report on this episode, if they ever started it, and it's been close to a year now. Their medical neutrality page says their organization "documents the deliberate targeting of health care systems and personnel, and advocates accountability for violators." They didn't document this one, and haven't tried calling anyone to task over it.

They provide a handy list of six examples of what a violation, of the kind they would accuse the old Libyan government, would look like. Unless there's an unstated double-standard, the same should apply to Libya's rebel militias. From what we know of the evidence at the hospital, not that anyone's gathered it rigorously, but pictures were taken at least, we can see nearly all examples are represented in this monstrous event [in brackets].

Medical neutrality is violated when health care professionals, facilities, or patients come under attack, or when medical professionals are not allowed to provide treatment. Examples include:
. Attacks on hospitals [Yes]
. Attacks on patients [Yes, many brutally murdered, at least one fully beheaded]
. Attacks on medical personnel [apparently - they all vanished]
. Attacks on medical transport [none evident, at the hospital, at the moment, but elsewhere in the area, at least one ambulance was attacked]
. Misuse of medical facilities [yes, using a hospital as a concentration spot for execution victims, and apparently as a dumping spot for those slaughtered nearby]
. Breaches of medical ethics by medical personnel [none evident among the missing staff, but the staff that "returned" and showed the media around warrants more scrutiny]

All but the fourth and the last examples are evident here, with the "attacks" being of the most decisive, fatal, and often the most brutal sorts. Only the last has been alleged by the rebels - the irresponsible alleged flight of the old staff, due to distant fear of the snipers sending so many to them. It was said the staff fled days prior to the festering mass' exposition on the 26th, as early as the 21st and as late as the 23rd. By this vague account, there was no arrangements or forwarding address for the wounded, leaving the patients to die unseen and leaving more to be dropped off to die. And so, the people died, passively. That's the accepted narrative so far, per the small circuit of rebels with mysteryinformation and journalists with no other sources left to talk to.

Other Libyan Violations Missed
So PHR missed this mother of all violations that saw a hospital turned into a slaughterhouse with hardly a peep from the media after the famous two-day spree of showing the bloating corpses without explanation. There are many other violations they missed in Tripoli, in Sirte, and elsewhere, all of them seemingly committed by anti-government rebel forces. These include shutting off water and electricity, embargoing fuel (needed for backup generators at the hospitals), blockading medicine and food, especially effective in squeezing Sirte, and reportedly direct military attacks on the Ibn Sina hospital there.  - besides these, there are specific deadly abusers which I solicit below, but here are a few examples

. Expulsion and Killing of Patients, Jalaa Hospital, Benghazi
A disturbing incident documented at Al-Jalaa hospital - an injured Black man being attacked, dragged out, and struck with swords.
Dr. Sabril Mohammed's account of a patient dragged out of ICU by rebel people, killed, and had his body displayed "on the wall of the Jalaa hospital." possinly the same incident or two separate ones

.Killing Nurses and Doctors in Tripoli
All allegedly Gaddafi loyalist crimes, but the evidence is far from clear, to put it softly. A doctor in green surgical gown was seen floating in the canal, noted by Hadeel Al-ShalchiAt least two nurses in scrubs, plus two other men in civilian clothes, all four Black, dumped just across the canal from Bab Al Aziziyah, with a bizarre back-story provided by rebular Libyan "locals."

And the mother of them all, the bloodbath at Abu Salim trauma hospital. All these will be mentioned in the report. Anyone please feel free to suggest others or develop these in the comments below.

Friday, June 22, 2012

The Attacks on Chakika

June 17, 2012
(last edits June 22)

This a development I haven't had the time to look into, but it's troubling and new and involves serious fighting and many fresh deaths in the city Chakika, with some kind of reasons...

It must be the Nafusah mountains, as the Meshashiya tribe are mentioned - the Tawerghans of the mountains, the supposed loyalist people who were cleansed from whole cities last summer as the Zintan rebels rolled towards Tripoli. There are allegations of extreme abuses the people are trying to resist, including poison gas, perhaps mustard gas. This is alarming stuff, but I'll have to let others study and comment on it. Not expecting CNN to find it newsworthy - they got all tuckered out caring about oppressed Libyans a ton, last year.

Some of this is in comments below, some with video. I'll start with some links left at other posts by contributor Hurriya:

The video of the massacre of civilians in Chakika
http://libyaagainstsuperpowermedia.com/2012/06/17/libya-the-video-of-the-massacre-of-civilians-in-chakika-june-16-2012/

Mustard Gas in Libyan "paradise" 
http://www.scoop.it/t/the-greatest-wepons-is-not-a-gun-nor-it-is-nuclear-it-is-information-control/p/1975538511/mustard-gas-in-libyan-paradise

confessed Abdelbari Tahar Fitori http://www.algeria-isp.com/public/libye1(212).jpg (relation to Majid Al-Fitouri?) June 15, 2012 Photo of the rebel Zenten arrested by the Chakika youth. After interrogation, confessed Abdelbari Tahar Fitori that senior militia Zenten as Mokhtar Akhdar, the commander of the rebel Zenten and the director of the Tripoli International Airport, are the ones who pushed the rebels to attack the town of Chakika since this city is loyal to the Libyan leader. He even confessed that the attack was coordinated with the militias of Zawiya and Misurata. http://libyaagainstsuperpowermedia.com/2012/06/16/libya-a-video-of-the-bombing-of-the-city-chakika-june-15-2012/

June 22 videos show the humanitarian catastrophe against the Mashashiya, at Mashashiya (thanks Felix, and Hurriya for more updates below in comments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22CcA2xBmi4 

The world is too busy to care or help, busy pursuing more chaos and sowing the seeds of future tribal/sectarian conflict in Syria.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Announcing: CIWCL website and QMOY report

June 13, 2012
update June 19


The website for Citizen's Investigation into War Crimes in Libya is now ready to go public.
http://ciwclibya.org/


The only thing there really at the moment is a monster, A Question Mark Over Yarmouk, 152 pages. No download link here, you have to go to the reports page at ciwclibya.org. We need more viewers now. Tell your friends! (update June 17: now there are videos and the main copy of the press release, re-posted below, and more to come)

I had planned a professional press release with PR Web, but it wasn't a fit. The terms they demanded gave me too many excuses to just get my money back. I'm not sure how well it would have worked for the site's visibility, given the unusual niche it would fill in the newsiverse, so not sure what I'm missing going this route. Below is a slightly revised version of what I submitted. Anyone inclined to re-post our stuff around and stuff, this is the best form. I realize there was already a round of social media and stuff for the last three days. So, whatever. I have bad timing.

This whole things gets a slow and awkward start. The viewership is fairly low, and the site itself still doesn't appear in a Google search, unless it's way down the list.

Actually, I lied. I won't re-publish the PR here. Please now don't link to this post, but to the site's posting of it:
"Holocaust" Denied
This is worth going viral, hypothetically.

Update June 19: Especially now.
And further:
http://ciwclibya.org/syria.html

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Abu Salim Hospital Massacre [Masterlist]

Post created August 30, 2011
turned to a masterlist May 17, 2012
last update Aug. 21, 2012

<< The Tripoli Massacres

The original article/content has been removed to a new post )top link below) to make this a masterlist for organizing numerous sub-posts, some still forthcoming. The comments, first several, reflect the old content.

A more appropriate intro later. First, the video to explain visually what this is about:


Then the Report (added Aug. 21, 2012 - the anniversary)
Abu Salim Hospital Massacre: Report

Then the links. Previous Posts:
Original Article, Aug.2011: Abu Salim Trauma "Hospital" - A decent overview - detailed but a bit dated.

Women and Children Dead at Abu Salim Hospital: Not many but any is enough to cause concern.

Video: A Massacre at Abu Salim Trauma Hospital: A good video I made to introduce the issue, plus some related findings.

More Detailed Research (for the report)
Abu Salim Hospital Report: Research: With an eye to a CIWCL report, collected posts to address certain sub-issues.

For those interested, I'm accepting ideas about what needs to go in this report, how it should be organized, phrased, etc. The content and tone are open at the moment as I just start an outline that might work. I've decided to postpone release of the shed massacre report long enough to fully absorb new info and to get this second report started. So long as the first one, and possibly both, are out in time for the one-year anniversaries, I'll consider that a victory.

Anyone want to take a crack at proposing a report outline/approach or even writing a draft section? Or helping gather more links, videos, images, etc.?

Thursday, June 14, 2012

The Tripoli Massacres: Mapping out the Roundabout

December 6, 2011
last edit June 14, 2012
(see new images: Jerome Sessini - other updates long overdue, but will have to wait)
12-2-2017 restoring image

<< The Tripoli Massacres
      << Slashing and Dumping at the Roundabout

The "roundabout" area, circular road exchanges separated by grassy islands just outside the Bab al-Aziziyah compound (Google maps), was the host of some two dozen or more reported victims of execution as the rebels took Tripoli. Some of these mainly black, executed men were famously shown to the world on August 25, across the grass between lanes of dead traffic. Some of that traffic was smashed, thrown open, and abandoned near the dead.

This post will seek to sort out, visually, how many corpses there were in the area, just where, and when. And while we're at it, it might establish when these corpses can be verified as seen there. I'm well into this sub-project already, but still putting together the documentation, and seeking further input on bodies, locations, timeline, etc. The smashed and abandoned cars in the area are also of interest here, and I'm somewhat mapping and counting those, although it's hard to tell often which vehicles to count.

Imagery establishing the area (various lighting):
Youtube videos:
The loyalist encampment in March
Al Jazeera Aug 23 tents at 2:10
Al Jazeera Aug 24 tents and two dead at 0:20-25
Al Jazeera Aug 25 1:30 onward, various views of the destruction here
Encampment after the violence, great videooriginal link here, copy video (graphic - victim stabbed in the top of the head with a sword?)
CNN reports from the roundabout Aug 25
AFP video, Aug 25
Reuters Aug 25
Reuters, Aug 24, late afternoon: eight more victims shown, outliers, in a different area

Photos:
Torn-down tent (any bodies beneath?)
The Atlantic: Medical tent, interior
Telegraph: Medical tent
Telegraph: Roundabout
RFERL: Roundabout victory
Central Island
HRW: Central island victims
Central island, west end
West end, fighters
Victim there, close-up (Graphic - from Life.com, re-posted until I can re-locate the original and get its date)
More good photos coming...

New photos, June 14:
Jerome Sessini, Getty images
Aug. 24 images, late afternoon, showing "loyalist soldiers executed by Ant-Gaddafi rebels," among the east-end bodies (#1-7 below, might change now...)
East end bodies, three, looking north
The northernmost body - tells the story of Libya right there. It's intense - a shattered right arm, braced up, forced to fight again left-handed, brains blown out on the sidewalk.
East end bodies, another three - one looks like an old man
same with fighter and better scenery
another one not seen before, splattered in the street by there - right hand smashed off with a block?
Bodies 18 and 19 as below, late afternoon
Sessini, Aug. 25:
Blindfolded man executed ... some way that made his body "deflate" and slump grotesquely. The chain is from the barrier knocked over, perhaps used to bind or torture as well... Location unclear -perhaps the Abu Salim fire station?
Sessini Aug. 26 (roundabout area?)
Bodies removed in Abu Salim


The graphic is nearly ready to post, placing the 25 victims I can see. Most of the eight victims shown by Reuters on August 24 are a little arbitrary, but I think I have the right general area. The rest are verifiable from multiple angles. If we include the 7 piled just north of there, we'd have at least 32. The number doesn't include the charred legless body at the medical tent, which I haven't seen, nor any others I haven't seen, yet.

One oddity is how apparently one batch of bodies stood out on the 24th, generally on the east half of the map. The man draped in a (green) Libyan flag is near the middle of the map, just a hundred feet from the seven bloated bodies so visible the next day. And the next day these had apparently been replaced with these fresh bodies we all were shocked by - bloated and crawling with maggots already.

Can anyone find proof that the main body of victims here, across the central island, were present on the 24th? If not, we may be dealing with body-planting after all, about two days after rebels took the compound area. The one clear problem is victim #9 (as given below). His left arm has advanced decay an/or burning, and his blood across the sidewalk suggests more than 24 hours elapsed since an on-site execution. Was he there on the 24th and just kept from the media's view somehow?

Another clue: The August 24 victims in particular have a penchant for falling dead right between sets of tire skid-marks. One had bullets fired at that very low wall next to him.

Dec 7: The graphic is ready. This is draft one (or 1.2), sufficient for now. The tents especially, and cars, are not filled in or placed perfectly. The version I had up for one day was messed up in spots. The new version is still incomplete on cars and tents, but accurate on seen bodies. Bodies are actually visible in the pile of seven just north of here, and perhaps at the roundabout (#9 in particular has a blob of pixels there). But the tents, their remains, and the cars rammed to a halt road-warrior-style are mostly all visible in this satellite view I hear is from August 29. So I added translucency on these layers to see where they tend to be pre-marked for me. I will re-do this after some time to get more info, if that seems worthwhile.

First note, tip to Felix: Victims 19 and 20, side-by-side, are shown on the 24th, by Al Jazeera's video of that day (0:20). These are the only two corpses I've yet seen shown ... actually I'm not sure they were seen on the 25th as well. Will need to look into that...Otherwise we still seem to have two distinct batches, one for each day. And the maggots seen on victims #11 and 12 don't grow overnight.

Next note, Dec. 8: As Petri points out, I had some things wrong I fixed above and at least one other I didn't. The "prominent green flags" in the southeast corner are set wrong. As the Al Jazeera Aug 24 video and the graphic one clarify the flags are atop the flag poles curving right by victims #17 and 18, just north of the medical tents. That's the first thing I'll change for the final version.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

The Capture, "Humane Treatment," "Fair Trial," and Violent Death of Seif al-Islam al-Gaddafi

November 22, 2011
last update June 10, 2012


Update June 10: Bumped to the top for the informative new comments on the recent developments: Something about the ICC's envoys to Seif being arrested by NTC forces for doing something they considered illegal in this lawless land.
---
This is another area, one of the big ones, where I know little at the moment. Therefore, another spot for comments from the better informed. At some point I'll pull the best stuff up into this post, but for now the content is below.

I'll add some new info Petri Krohn (Hands off Libya) brought (elsewhere) on the location of the strike on Seif's convoy, something we didn't even know about until recently. Between the --- is from Petri
---
The Capture
This is what Libya S.O.S. says on the issue When #NATO was bombing a convoy of Saif al-Islam #Gaddafi, NATO was sent to the location which they didnt know well. The place is called the Valley of Zamzam it is located between the Bani Walid and Sirte. NATO bombs martyred a number of Saif al-Islam companions, and he was wounded in the hand and his back. NATO rebels and jackals on the ground, than approached the brave wounded Mujahideens and dismembered their bodies. This seems to be the original on Facebook in Arabic. Here is another copy of the video, uploaded by QuatchiCanada on Dec 27, 2011: *** This suggests that Saif al Islam Gaddafi may have left Sirte with the convoy on October 20th. It is also possible, that Saif al Islam had been in Bani Walid and left when rebels took over the town a few days earlier.

Arabic language Wikipedia has an article for Wadi Zamzam (وادى زمزم). ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/وادي زمزم The place can be found on Wikimapia here. The location is about half way between Sirte and Bani Walid. Here is the Zangetna discussion on the video.

The video shows trees and vegetation consistent with the wadi. I do not think it is possible to pinpoint a more accurate location. There is a village in Zamzam between the two branches of the wadi. The Peoples Committee is located here.
---
Update May 2/3, 2012: 
Treatment
More later on his missing fingers...

Otherwise we don't know. The world hasn't seen him, or vice-versa, in over five months.

The Debate over Seif's "Fair Trial"
There's some news on wrangling between the ICC and Libyan courts over who gets to convict Seif and Mr. Senussi for the fake crimes they've been saddled with. One wants to lock him up for life or poison him before the trial ends ala Milosevic, all in the Hague, where rogue Africans belong. The other side wants to torture a full confession and then execute him, preferably by slow beheading, in his homeland. I think Seif would prefer the latter. (see comments below for links and further news)

Besides Tripoli and the Hague, there is Zintan, the place he's been held incommunicado since capture in November. When there was gold at the airport, the Zintanis insisted on holding the airport. When the leader's son is in their custody, they ain't letting that go either. Damien McElroy, the Telegraph:
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is demanding the extradition of Col Muammar Gaddafi's presumed heir to The Hague to face war crimes charges for giving orders to kill unarmed civilians during the uprising against the old regime. 
Libya's lawyers are appealing for the right to stage Saif's trial in a Libyan courthouse. However, Osama al-Jueili, Libya's defence minister and head of the militia brigade which is holding Saif in the town of Zintan, added to confusion over his fate by insisting his prisoner would face trial in his town, not the capital Tripoli. "I think he will be tried in Zintan," Mr Jueili told the Daily Telegraph. "Zintan is part of Libya, the country where the crimes he is charged with were [for a fact] committed. In the history of war crimes it is not necessary to hold these courts in the capital." 
The comments are bound to exacerbate [existing and founded] fears that Saif will face victor's justice at the hands of his captors and inevitable execution. 
[...] 
The only outsiders to see Saif must be granted permission by Abdelaziz al-Hasadi, Libya's prosecutor general. However, access is so zealously guarded that Saif has not met with a defence lawyer. Only the ICC, Red Cross, his doctors and a human rights campaigner have successfully secured meetings with the prisoner.
Over five months in and still no legal counsel? Clearly that's how the Zintanis want it. He will not get a lawyer, an adequate one allowed to do his job anyway. If anyone tries to argue in Seif's behalf, say that such orders that underpin the new nation's mythology never actually existed, he will be arrested himself for "glorifying the Gaddafi regime."

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

See-Through Salem: Arrested?

May 22, 2012
Last update June 4/5

<< See-Through Salem {Masterlist}

I thank Hurriya for this tip on a new development reported by the Green Libyan Facebook group "شباب ليبيا الأحرار علي الفيس بوك لنشر الحقائق من أجل ليبيا الغد" [Libyan Liberal Youth on Facebook to spread the facts for Libya's Future?] and nowhere else I've seen.

  It's a photo showing armed men in semi-military and civilian clothes carrying a chubby, short, pale-bellied man across a bridge. One wields a club-like object in a seemingly threatening way, and others carry rifles. The attached info, in Arabic, then English Google translation.

 مرتزقة الناتو يضربون ويجرون طبيب في مركز طربلس الطبي _____________________________________________ هذه الصورة ليست في سجن أبوغريب و ليست في معتقل غوانتانامو... !! هذه الصورة في مركز طرابلس الطبي وهكذا تمت معاملة الدكتور "سالم الفرجاني" بعد حضوره لإدارة المركز لاتمام إجراءات التسليم و الاستلام, هذه هي ليبيا الجديدة هذه هي الديمقراطيه هذه هي العدالة وحقوق الأنسان التي وعدوا بها الشعب وخدعوا بها العالم في اوضح صورها وبأيدي من يسمون باللجنة الامنيه العليا المؤقته طربلس

 Auto-translated: NATO mercenaries beating and dragging a doctor at the Tripoli Medical Center _____________________________________________
 This photo is not in the prison of Abu Ghraib, not at Guantanamo Bay ... !! This image in the Tripoli Medical Center, and so has the treatment of Dr. "Salem Ferjani" after attending a management center to complete the procedures for delivery and receipt, this is the new Libya This is the democracy of this is justice and human rights that were promised the people, deceived by the world in the clearest images and the hands of the so-called Committee Supreme Security temporary Tripoli
---
See-through Salem, the transparent fixer of rebel war crimes, fake witness (aka Dr. Salim Rajab/Rajip/Rajub), manager of other poor-performing and over-used fake witnesses, and the NTC's former co-chair of the national missing persons commission, chronicler of Gaddafi crimes, crusader for bereaved familes and the truth, important contact and evidence-gatherer for human rights groups, the UN, and the ICC. Allegedly, now, arrested and dragged out of his workplace by forces ostensibly loyal to the NTC / prevailing NATO-backed militia force.

 Why? Did the NTC suspect he's been pranking them, being way too obvious on their dime and discrediting them more than necessary? For the record, I have wondered if he was doing this on purpose to discredit the NTC with his antics. I think he has done that a bit, with help from me and other site members/contributors. But in reality, he's not much worse than most of the people given the delicate and almost impossible task of fooling people like us. The rebel crime-fixers are all transparent to differing degrees (the other Dr. Salem (Qasr) at AbuSalim trauma hospital, for example). This guy was probably trying to help, just like all the others, and is only an idiot who lacks nuance and discretion.

He should not be killed, tortured, or even dragged out like a criminal like this for being an idiot. If there's another specified crime he's being detained for, I do hope the authorities will publicly announce it.

 I have left some comments, Google Arabic, at that page asking for more information. If I get any more details, from there or anywhere, I'll pass it on here. For now, a blown-up detail of the photo. The resolution is not adequate to tell much in this zoomed-out view, but that could be Dr. Al-Farjami, and the Libyan youth say it is.
May 23: Still awaiting information. Additional postings:

Rebel posting, no arrow, but snowflakes (?) http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?id=196059987096192&l=21096e7d8a&pid=1000592
Auto-translated caption suggests more sympathy to the arrest as lawful: Tripoli Medical Center - some of the counted on "Higher Security Committee" Apply (the law) to the doctor [Salem Ferjani] as shown in the picture

Un-marked, with gunmen named?: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=467993616560638&set=a.217452284948107.69715.217308438295825&type=3&theater
Auto-translated caption suggests a mundane reason for the arrest: "it is Dr. Libby is called d. Salem Ferjani In the Tripoli Medical Center, and Chahdhm carry it assumes Almariz at Abu Ghraib prison, they are members of the Supreme Security Committee of Tripoli, and the story revolves around the minutes of the delivery and receipt of the management of the center and the intransigence of the previous administration in the delivery, although the Ferjani has a mandate from the Ministry of Health to complete the process of receipt."

There are some other reflections, including this tweet from Leo
NATO mercenaries dragging Dr.Salem Ferjani out of the Tripoli medical center: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=337047939701449&set=a.154538474619064.40814.154528817953363&type=1 Thx for your support @matt_vandyke !
I'm not so good with Twitter understanding, but I gather Van Dyke, the pro-rebel journalist/activist was following Leo's stream until he was blocked a few days prior to this arrest. Leo mentions a pro-NTC "Press solidarity" reporting a lot of thing, it seems including this (thanks Petri). http://presssolidarity.net/رئيس-اللجنة-المكلفة-لاستلام-مركز-طراب/
Again, auto translate:
Was yesterday, Monday, Chairman of the Committee in charge of the receipt of the Tripoli Medical Center were attacked by a group, it was said as belonging to the management of the Tripoli Medical Center. According to sources, "news agency solidarity" during an interview that took place between the Director of the Tripoli Medical Center Khaled, Chairman of the Committee conferred upon, receiving center, a number of armed personnel to manage the medical center by dragging and dragging them to a vehicle and taken to an unknown location. Picked up and reported the existence of separate Chairman of the Committee of the Supreme Security Committee. And tried to "news agency solidarity" Contact manager Tripoli Medical Center and Chairman of the Supreme Security Committee and Security Committee of Tripoli and the Ministry of the Interior; to see fuller details about the incident to no avail. News Agency of solidarity - a special
A comment from there adds... something.
Certificate of debt I am the presence of the position the person my father and then his arrest was one of the ousted Imran melons and Alqirdafa has jumped on the doctors and staff at the center with the knowledge that our parents Qdu him are the military police after he himself Bstdaahm and massage for the purpose of the threat and after the submission of documents from one employee to the elements Military Police condemn this person is called a Salem Ferjani Anao was a member of the Revolutionary Committees and the former was arrested by military police and thank you ..

WOW
Update, June 4/5
So, Did that just say he had been part of the Gaddafi-era committees that basically ran things? And he was allowed to take a leading role in the clownish seach for the "truth" of Gaddafi's crimes? That would support all-too-clearly my stranger suspicions here.

The ambiguity we began with is no more. I just got a tip from an astute reader that, yes, this is Dr. Salem. The Guardian has just yesterday reported on it and wow, is this getting interesting. He was beaten and, by some definition, "tortured," but still alive. There's sudden controversy over the identified NTC thug unit that arrested him. He's reportedly been threatened not to speak out, but is speaking out, and is thus reportedly in hiding in Tripoli. I do hope he's picked a good spot, can lay low and keep quiet for the moment, or get away entirely, and let the rest of us hash over his S.O.S. Check this out:
Libya sees claims of beatings and human rights abuses as elections near By Chris Stephen, the Guardian, June 3, 2012.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/03/libya-security-force-kidnapping-surgeon

Some quotes:
Members of an elite unit set up by the Libyan government to rein in the country's rival militia forces have been accused of kidnapping and severely beating one of the country's foremost surgeons. The abduction appears further evidence that 10 months after taking over, Libya's new interim government has failed to curb human rights abuses, and is seemingly incapable of controlling either the militias or its own security force. It comes as the country faces its first national elections later this month – a key test of whether Libya is heading towards democracy or violent secessionism. Salem Forjani, a heart surgeon working for the health ministry, was seized on 17 May when he went to Tripoli medical centre – the city's largest hospital – on orders of the health minister to remove the director, who was accused of links with the Gaddafi regime.
But Salem allegedly had his own G-link, and it was he who was arrested. Was it some kind of set-up? It seems so. Mr. Stephen continues:
Instead, he was confronted by members of the government's supreme security committee (SSC) waiting in the director's office, who dragged Forjani through the hospital, beating him so badly he lost consciousness in front of horrified staff. A fellow medic photographed Forjani being carried, his shirt off, spreadeagled, down the hospital's ambulance ramp while an SSC soldier threatened to shoot unarmed hospital security staff giving chase.
That's the photo. The world thanks this medic, and the others who tried to help. Continueing:
The SSC troops bundled the doctor into a car and incarcerated him in a base at Naklia, a suburb of Tripoli, where he was beaten and kicked so hard in the groin that he was left with a ruptured testicle. Forjani escaped with his life. But for five days neither his family nor health minister Fatima Hamroush could find him, or even get confirmation he was still alive. Finally, after he had been moved to a second facility, at Tripoli's Mitiga airport, the SSC contacted the health ministry and released him, having failed to charge him with any offence or even explain the reason for his capture.
I have a good guess for the reason. It's one that, if true, would remain unstated. On the surface, he's been the essence of anti-Gaddafi, and was so at least from February 2011, he says keeping careful track of what was really happening as the dead and injured came through TMC, keeping files to prove it. (It's the intentional clown theory, but there are others at least as likely that would also be left unstated. There can be little legitimate reason to do this.)

Mr. Stephen reports moves are underway to keep the man safe. "Diplomats are quietly lobbying Libya's government to issue a guarantee of safety for Forjani." Guarantee? Ha. A call returned, and a statement of sympathy, maybe.

Sorry, can't stop quoting:
Now the surgeon is in hiding in Tripoli, having been warned of reprisals if he speaks out. "I don't know how this could happen, this is a new Libya," he told the Guardian. "I kept asking them, who are you, why are you doing this?" 
What has shocked many Libyans, with the photograph now going viral among Facebook users, is that Forjani is a leading light among human rights groups. He sits [sic?] as an expert on the government's missing persons commission and chaired an investigation into a massacre of prisoners by the Gaddafi administration, a report distributed to the United Nations and the international criminal court.
We'll have our own report on that subject fitting that description quite soon. One more update needed, obviously.
His kidnap and torture, and the silence with which it has been met by the government, has left many Libyans fearing for the future. "This is kidnapping," said his brother, Salah, an official with a Libyan human rights group. "It [the SSC] is more powerful than the police and that is the intention."

"It was not supposed to be this way," Stephen continues, explaining the SSC, which I hadn't really heard of. It was established under the interior ministry "as a means for the state to gain control of security from Libya's patchwork of militias." Reportedly drawing its members "from both former rebels and disbanded Gaddafi-era internal security units, has become a law unto itself," one now widely feared in the capitol especially. The hospital's director (see below), and a Health ministry official have been threatened by the SSC, they say, who used their abuse of Al-Farjani as a demonstration.

The NTC "government" hasn't arrested anyone or started an investigation. Stephen reports, the interior ministry refuses to return calls, and an NTC representative cancelled a meeting to discuss it.
Last month, the United Nations special representative, Ian Martin, raised concerns at the UN security council in New York. "The interim mechanism called the supreme security committee, with some 60,000 to 70,000 fighters registered, had, to some extent, provided a unified command," his report states. "It was essential, however, that the committee not become a parallel security."

Yet this is precisely what critics claim the SSC has become. When her official was kidnapped, health minister Hamroush wrote to interim prime minister Abdurrahim el-Keib and president Mustafa Abdul Jalil, begging for help. "We have had no answer," said health ministry official Hussam Bubash.
The mystery of this episode is just mysterious. Consider the director of the TMC, where Al-Farjani ran his alleged operation all those months, whom Farjani was sent to relieve (replace?). Dr Khalid Urayath stands accused of Gaddafi loyalism, and of squandering money on trips abroad (outside of Libya? Gasp!) for hospital staff. But he can't be removed, for some reason. He says he in fact tutored Muammar Gaddafi's mysterious daughter Hannah, explaining "The best cardiovascular surgeon in the country is me, very humble to say it. You cannot say no to the Colonel." He's also "a fellow of the UK's Royal College of Surgeons," the report adds, who just last month "secured an offer of computer equipment from the British Libyan business council."

Dr Khalid Urayath – the director of Tripoli medical centre, whom Forjani was sent to relieve – remains unrepentant. He is refusing to step down, saying he is supported by hospital staff and this makes irrelevant the wishes of the health minister. Forjani's kidnap came during the fourth attempt this year by health ministry officials to order Urayath to step down. When he refused, Forjana, acting on instructions from the health minister, called the general prosecutor's office to ask for help from law enforcement officers.
Did they set him up and have him call the thugs on himself? Again, they were waiting for him "in the director's office" when he got there. The SSC thugs working with the alleged loyalist? (What had happened during the previous failed efforts of an alleged loyalist sent to get rid of an accused loyalist?)
"He was calling on armed forces," said Urayath. "You know why they [the SCC] used force on him? Dr Salem (Forjana) was trying to escape down the stairs – he was trying to escape. They took him in care and took him to the site of the SSC, they put him there, they interrogated him."
This guy sounds off. They took Salem in and beat his gonads to a pulp because he tried to escape? The thing he wanted to escape from, perhaps connected to the interrogation, the why behind the why, is left unexplained.
...following Urayath's refusal to step down, the health ministry's plans to reform a health service left in chaos by the Gaddafi dictatorship are in tatters.
Yes, blame the "brutal 42-year rule" when all the sickeningly shitty parts of it are only surfacing the last year or so. There will surely be more news on this, and I'll try to stay abreast of it.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Khoms Containers Suffocation re-enactment.

by Felix


As the annivesary of the alleged suffocations approaches,there has been increase activity in keeping this dubious event alive. I now notice a recent dramatisation of the event on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX2Cl2CBS5c, فيلم عذاب شهداء الحاوية , uploaded from the USA by Sawtalthwar, 23 May. Film - Torment of the container martyrs. 3.31 minutes.
Gripping stuff....stay tuned for the next episode, perhaps. The "exhumation". Strangely, I don't see them drinking their own sweat. Too difficult to realise. Do not try this at home.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Report: A Question Mark Over Yarmouk

March 26, 2012
last updates June 14

Update, June 14: The report is now complete and published. The current (best, final?) version is available in PDF at the new CIWCL site. (Direct PDF link there - go there!)

This post will be the spot for the first report of the Citizen's Investigation into War Crimes in Libya to be discussed, its portions published so far linked and organized, and whatever. Right now, I wanted to show the cover art. The document stands as of June 1 at 144 pages total.

At left, the cover design.

Below, the sections there will be, pages (pp) and progress in % complete. (99% is the highest until the whole report's done). The few sub-sections where I've posted a rough draft online are so linked. This helps me spot the last errors as well as show off the biggest sections, with the most new bits, that are approximately done and worth adding to the site.



(June 1: I don't feel like updating all this below - it's much further along and nearly done across the board.)


Part 1: Introduction
(section) 1.1: Report Overview (3 pp, 75%)

bonus graphic not included 
in the report: 
see article 2.4.2
1.2: About the CIWCL and this Report (2 pages, 40%)

1.3: A "Holocaust" Scene on the World Stage (7 pp, 99%)
In short, "why it matters." I've found this is an important thing to clarify up-front.
Rough draft online

1.4: Another Khamis Prison Massacre (7 pp, 99%)
Rough draft online
Presaging some of the problems with the larger massacre, a contemporaneous case a few miles away of six killed, 50-100 escaped unharmed. 

Part 2: Problematic Witnesses
(section) 2.1: So-Called Witnesses and Injustice (3 pp, 90%)
If it's happened before, why rule it out here? (Special emphasis on false testimonyfrom Tawerghan teens about rape parties in Misrata)

2.2: Cataloguing the Witnesses (5-7 pp, 96%)
Rough Draft Online (minus some intro material)
New draft for the report will include the Mohammed Bahir/Bashir al-Sedik/Germani/Omar cluster of clownish confusion, pressed in an under-stated way into the intro.

2.3: The Captive Soldiers “Confess” (7 pp, 98%)
(a bit expanded from what we have collected here)

2.4: Believe Whom? (13 pp, 98%)
Rough draft online
Sorry,you'll have to decide which witnesses to believe and which must be wrong, time and again.

2.5: "See-Through Salem" and the Fakers He's Touched (11 pp, 98%)
(not much different from what we have collected here)

Part 3: An Alternate Evidence-Based Explanation
(section) 3.1: Racist Brutality, up to the Shed (13 pp, 99%)
Rough-draft online
A fast-paced yet relentlessly dense summary of summary executions of Africa wherever the Rebels found it. Essential background knowledge for the next sub-section.

3.2: Un-Burned Victim Clues (7-8 pp, 75%)
(a bit compressed from what we have collected here and here)
Why are most of those prisoners killed after escape black, while none of the dozens that lived are?

3.3 Charred Victim Clues
(compressed from here)

3.4: Timeline Clues for a Rebel Massacre (9-10 pp, 90%)
(a bit expanded from what we have collected here)
The date of the massacre, August 23, is one of the few points the rebels and witnesses seem likely to be correct on. So why do clues keep popping up that the rebels controlled this base by the 23rd, and had a pile of 140 bodies to explain by dawn on the 24th?

3.5: Closing: Possibilities and Recommendation

Sources (10-11 pp, 85%)
rough draft